Girl Trouble 20th anniversary

GIRL TROUBLE CELEBRATES THE BIG 2-0!
"ELUDING FAME SINCE 1984"

The complete story by Winston Barlow. Photos by Tim Olsen, Rick Reinert, Dale Phillips, Ed Nadorozny, Gary Hoffart and Tawnya.

Girl Trouble poses in the Tropicana alley in Olympia, Washington (1984)

What's happenin' babys!
Girl Trouble's 20th Anniversary Celebration at the Crocodile this month was a sight to behold. Hard to imagine that when I started my meager little "What's Happenin', Baby" scene report in Wig Out Magazine, twenty years later I'd still be covering these losers. Well, after they helped launch my whirlwind career in rock and roll, I guess I can repay them by covering one more event, especially when it was this fabulous. If you missed this, you'll see why you missed out. Check out the crowd shots. I'm the one way in the back in the yellow beehive section.

Before we get started I think I'd better mention that Girl Trouble certainly couldn't have pulled this off themselves. They called in the "big guns" on this one. Their great friend and longtime Girl Trouble supporter, PETER ENGLISH (aka Peter VERBBRUGE), offered to help with promoting this event. He's the guy that can "make it happen". Peter has had a long glorious history in the Northwest music scene during the early 90s by booking some of the now legendary Crocodile shows. He went on to do projects like booking the huge Fremont Festival during the summer. When it comes to promotion, Peter is The Man! Of course, Girl Trouble didn't waste any time taking him up on his generous offer to help promote the big anniversary show. Sending out promo packets, emailing, phone calling...Girl Trouble now knows why they stink at promotion...it's a lot of damn work! Thankfully, Peter was there to handle the bulk of it. So thanks to Peter English for all his unselfish work on this crazy successful weekend!

The real kick-off began in mid-March when Girl Trouble joined deejay AMANDA WILDE at the Java Jive for a live remote broadcast to promote the new KEPX FM moving to Tacoma airwaves. There were many reminicenses from the band, in fact you couldn't shut them up! People must have been listening to those long drawn-out stories of new wave hairdos, Bobby Floyd and Granny Go-Go because lots of old friends showed up to hang out.

The next weekend was when the real celebration took off starting with a Big Time Radio interview. Incredible KNDD deejay, DICK ROSSETTI, the Best Voice in Seattle, invited the GTs on his 2 - 6 PM shift (and don't miss Dick's show...ever! 107.7 FM). He and KNDD made the supreme sacrifice by having a band with no hits, no scandles and no ties to major labels of any kind, appear on his show. Dick talked to the band about the old Northwest days and played "My Hometown" over the indie airwaves. It was a thrill to watch Dick be the pro jock that he is.

Girl Trouble was also elated to find that they'd been given the star treatment in the Seattle PI. Yes, that's the real Seattle paper! A real newspaper with real news! The awesome PI pop music critic, GENE STOUT had a long phone conversation with magpie K.P. Kendall and came away with a really cool article that Girl Trouble will be showing bored friends and relatives for years to come. Thanks to Gene who I'm sure noticed the Seattle PI circulation go sky-high due to many extra copies perchased by Girl Trouble members. Great article. I think old Winston is jealous! Click HERE to read the whole thing!

SATURDAY, MARCH 20TH was the big anniversary performance. Girl Trouble was lucky enough to get the best club in the Northwest, The Crocodile Cafe, for this historic event. This has been GT's favorite venue since they opened their doors over 10 years ago. JIM ANDERSON is the best soundman in the US and CHRISTINE WOOD is the best booker. What more could you askfor?

The old Crocodile filled up early. All those kids who'd "never amount to anything", who'd gone to punk rock shows, skated, formed bands, gotten drunk and caused nothing but trouble...showed up to talk about their careers, their kids, their houses...and their bands, and punk rock and causing trouble. The first people to arrive were met by the glamorous Troublette Bunny with a free Girl Trouble button commemorating the event. Teen Time's favorite Master of Ceremonies, STU MICHAELS, was on hand to keep all those former Teen Time Dancers in line.

TOUCH THE PHOTOS TO SEE THE CAPTION/CLICK THE PHOTOS TO SEE THE ENTIRE PICTURE

Rick Razzle seriously contemplates his idol Herb Alpert

Dave Dazzle fronts the Razzle Dazzle Gang

First on the show was the RAZZLE DAZZLE GANG. While it was a mystery before showtime, it can now be revealed that the RDG was a super combo consisting of the members of Head (Ree Ree, Tulu and Touch) and Dave Holmes from the Fall-outs. This is the supergroup that was originally formed to play a wedding reception gig so the highlights included "Rain" by the Beatles, "Hey Brother" by the Star Trek space hippies and a bitchin' medley the included "Lonely Bull" and "Love is Blue". The crowd absolutely loved these guys and were obviously both razzled and dazzled by their exciting show.

What can I say about THE FALL-OUTS? They're one of the best bands in Seattle, they've been around as long as Girl Trouble, and they should be more famous than all of these new garage "hot shots" we keep hearing about. How about they've got a great new CD out called "Summertime" and they played after the Razzle Dazzle Gang? Dave Holmes had to pull double duty but put on the same great show as always. Together with Zak (bass) and Dino (drums) the Fall-outs never fail to get the crowd moving. The choice for opening bands couldn't have been better!

The lights went out, the CD on the sound system blasted a soccer match crowd chanting "stand up" (provided by Karl Kendall) and Teen Time host Stu Michaels took the stage to introduce Girl Trouble. The crowd cheered as the Tacoma foursome blasted into the first song they ever performed live at that legendary community college Battle of the Bands so many years ago...the Venture's version of "Out of Limits". K.P. even attempted a brief melodica solo. The first part of the 20th anniversary show was filled not only with old material like "She No Rattle My Cage" but a brand new GT hit, "Scars Keep Comin'".

After about five songs it was time for the incredible stunt that had been announced for weeks...the free beehive wig giveaway, donated by the Archie McPhee Store. Peter English, Shana and the Archie McPhee assistants, and our own T-shirt girl Ricky, started feverishly passing out 300 flourescent blue, green, pink and yellow tall rubbery beehives. The plan was to have them worn during "Bring on the Dancing Girls". As the wigs started emerging in the crowd, it was easy to see that this was going to be one spectacular stunt! Colors tended to group together as they were passed out, yellows in back, blues and pinks in front, greens off to the left. It was a very colorful crowd. And there were so many creative ways to wear one's wig only the photos will tell the story. Everyone stook still for a quick photo and then went crazy during "Dancing Girls". Wowie Wow!

Ladies and Gentlemen, David Emmanuel Duet III

K.P. broke out his newly fixed sax for a couple of tunes including one of Girl Trouble's favorite Northwest cover tunes, "Leaving Here" (the Jimmy Hanna and the Dynamics version, of course!). Kahuna takes the vocal duties on this one and his voice was in fine form.

After the sax numbers, probably the most poinient moment of the night happened when K.P. announced DAVID EMANUEL DUET. As you know David filled in for a year in 1985 when K.P. briefly went nuts and "quit" Girl Trouble. The band always said they'd remained good friends with David and apparently they weren't joking. David looked great and the audience cheered wildly as he tood the stage. David joined Kahuna, Bon and Dale for a tight rendition of an old GT favorite, "Follow Me Down". The highlight, however, was went K.P. came back for a duet...a duet with David Duet (which is actually pronounced "doo-way" for those GT trivia buffs)! They sang "The Skin" together and it was an amazing sight. David sounded better than ever and the crowd definitely let him know it. It was a fantastic Girl Trouble moment that we will always cherish. David's been out of the music scene for the past few years but I have a hunch that won't last long. That guy belongs on stage!

The band took the Wayback Machine to 1984 for a few songs they used to play "back in the day" including "I Got My Mojo Working", "Tell Us the Truth", and "Goo Goo Muck". The old timers laughed while the newcomers probably heard them done in the GT style for the first time.

In a show crammed full of bits, schticks and stunts, they couldn't let one of the old standards go by. The GT Dance Contest has been an audience favorite for years. People have danced for boxes of cereal, Polish sausages, KFC play food...you name it. But this prize was the best of all. The winner would take home Girl Trouble's quarterly royalty check from Sub Pop Records. Bon would sign it over right there on the spot. Three amazing dancers: Bailey, Kate and James were brought up on stage and the audience was asked to be the judge. Girl Trouble played the only dance song that would be appropriate for such an occasion, "Work That Crowd" the tribute to the best go-go gal of them all, Granny Go-Go. The minute Kahuna blasted into it the dancers let it fly. There was more shaking, twisting, monkeying, shimmying, fruging and flat out go-go dancing than the old Croc stage had seen in quite awhile. Granny herself would have been impressed, or at least steamed that other dancers were trying to "upstage" her. The GT crew wisely let the audience decide the winner. Unfortunately the applause was so close they had to resort to the standard coin toss to determine Kate to be the winner. (We're still getting gripes from the vocal "James camp" over the decision!) Regardless, Kate took home the gigantic Sub Pop royalty check of $12.59! She was last seen deciding where to spend it all!

Top: Dave Holmes, Mark Arm and Tracy Kelly are hip-mo-tized!

After all these years: They still love the prizes!

After the smoke cleared from the dance contest, Girl Trouble played the theme song "My Hometown" written for their favorite "most stressful city in the world", Tacoma, Washington. The last song of the set and the last song played on that memorable night all those years ago was "Born to Lose". The crowd begged for a couple more including the first Girl Trouble original, "Riverbed". After using up the last of the drink tickets and hanging out with old pals it was finally time to load up the old 74 Chevy Girl Troublemobile for the ride back to T-town.

Now I know this is sounding like the end of the road but "fat chance" is all I gotta say. Obviously those four still ain't ready to call it quits. Call it gutsy or call it crazy, I guess we all can stop asking Girl Trouble how long they'll be together. After 20 years I think the question has been answered. And what was everybody's critique of the evening? As GT family member Deb Olsen said, "With Girl Trouble, it's all about the love." Check out all those happy faces and see ya in 2024...or hopefully before!

Bon Von Wheelie and the new Gretsch drumset

CLICK THIS PHOTO FOR A BIGGER VERSION AND SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT YOURSELF IN THE CROWD...OR AT LEAST SPOT ROCKIN' ROD!
With all the perks that Peter "English" Verbbruge managed to get for this show the "piece de resistance" was the sponsorship by urban fun store Archie McPhee. Check out their awesome website (link is below). I dare you NOT to place an order. It's the most irresistable store I can think of. Peter thought that since Girl Trouble had been throwing out prizes for so many years the McPhee kids might want to make a little contribution. Oh they made a contribution all right, but LITTLE was far from it! You can see for yourself the glory of 300 people all adorned in the Archie McPhee beehives. They also donated plastic skull containers and tiny glamour girls. Anyone attending walked out with an armload of great Archie freebies. Thanks again to Shana, and all our pals at Archie McPhee for making this anniversary show the best! I'm still laughing at the sight of it!

GIRL TROUBLE THANKS...

PETER ENGLISH
(VERBRUGGE)
for the Promo/advice and mostly his Expert HELP!

SHANA AND
ARCHIE McPHEE
for the wigs/prizes!

CHRISTINE & JIM
@ THE CROC
for the awesome show!

MR. DICK ROSSETTI
& KNDD
for the bigtime radio promo spots, endmail
& dynamite on-air interview!

AMANDA WILDE AT
KEXP
for the live remote interview at the Java Jive!

THE
FALL-OUTS
&
HEAD
oops, we mean the Razzle Dazzle Gang!

:
And we don't want to lose track of the publicity photo of the Razzle Dazzle Gang!